‘Panopticon’ is a pertinent title for this project for University College London. The name was originally conceived to describe a new type of institutional building by the philosopher and social reformer Jeremy Bentham. Deriving from the Greek words ‘pan’ (all) and ‘optikos’ (of sight), it was borrowed by the client to emphasise the all-pervading nature of the building.
The real opportunity was to introduce a new route to link between the historic ‘front door’ of University College, marked by the classical portico and courtyard facing Gower Street, with Gordon Street and Gordon Square, where a number o UCL departments were sited. The building could thus function as a ‘modern’ portico linking to its classical counterpart.
The potential route establishes a rationale for the section of the new building. The ground level, containing the entrance, a cafe and exhibition space, is glazed front and back. Above the entrance is a three-story ‘box’ dedicated to the important Petrie collection of Egyptian archaeology. The three levels were seen by the curators as representing the underworld, earth and heaven, or even the subconscious, the conscious and the sublime – a fine poetic with which to elaborate the display.
The museum is represented to the street as a windowless, polished dark granite sarcophagus-like facade with a carved frieze of Egyptian hieroglyphics.
Above are the reading rooms and library spaces for the rare books collections, roofed by a series of shallow barrel vaults. The front elevation features a large cantilevered canopy beneath which students, academics and visitors can gather.
Below ground are lecture halls, work rooms and store rooms. The whole building is thus a dense layering of nine levels of arts-oriented functions.
One purpose was to signify the importance of culture in the largely scientific UCL. The combination of introspection (in terms of the museum display and libraries) and strategic overview (the new route) provides a complex proposition that can be appropriately called a panopticon.